Cats have been serving on ships for as long as humans have been going to sea. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings depict cats being used on boats to hunt birds along the Nile. Over the millenniums, cats became valued by sailors for pest control, companionship and good luck. #Caturday

#Caturday

This kitten on HMS Eagle in 1945 does not seem ready to get out of the hammock. Sailors often made hammocks for their ship's cat because it helped prevent sea sickness and made their furry shipmate seem more like a member of the crew. #LazySunday #Cats

The trained cats of the battleship USS Mississippi were named Dirty Face, Clean Face, Leatherneck, Long Ears, Baltimore City, and Flop. They would climb ladders into hammocks, ring bells, and knock over lines of pins to entertain visitors when the ship was in port. #Caturday

In 2016, a pilot with the 814 Naval Squadron "Flying Tigers" drove 300 miles unaware that a tiny tiger-striped kitten had crawled into the bumper of his car. A search for stowaway's owner was unsuccessful, so the pilot adopted the kitten and give him the name Tigger. #Caturday

A 1915 Christmas postcard of the ship's cat on the cruiser HMS Topaze. Cats were common on Royal Navy ships during the First World War, and postcards featuring the mascots became very popular. #Caturday

If you ever have the chance to tour the museum ship HMS Belfast in London, be sure to look for the exhibit dedicated to the ship's cat. There is now a plush cat in the hammock that once belonged to "Frankenstein" during WWII. #CatsOfTwitter

Crewmembers from USNS Carson City provided food and cleaned up cat houses for the Associazione 'Mici del Forte' cat rescue in Venice, Italy on January 7. 150 “Kittens of the Fort” live in the 19th century fortress that has become a cat sanctuary. #caturday #CatsofTwittter

Today is National Bootlegger's Day! During Prohibition, agents learned to immediately look for the ship's cats when they boarded a suspected rum runner. The cats would often dart off to a hidey-hole, revealing the ship's secret compartment with the illegal booze. #CatsOfTwitter